Global Semiconductor Revenue Projected to Reach $1.6 Trillion by 2026, Driven by AI Infrastructure

Global semiconductor revenue is expected to reach $1.6 trillion in 2026, marking a 92 per cent increase from the 2025 revenue of $809 billion, according to data from research firm Gartner. The market is projected to continue its upward trajectory, with forecasts estimating total revenue of $1.9 trillion by 2027.

Industry analysts attribute this rapid expansion to sustained investments in AI infrastructure alongside a stronger-than-anticipated memory pricing cycle. Ben Lee, Director Analyst at Gartner, noted that the accelerating pace of the semiconductor industry is reshaping both investment patterns across the ecosystem and the overall application mix.

According to Gartner, AI applications are anticipated to account for over half of total semiconductor revenue by 2030. The AI data centre ecosystem alone is expected to grow from 36.5 per cent of semiconductor revenue in 2026 to more than 53 per cent by 2030, highlighting a structural shift in where value is created and how market demand is evolving.

Memory remains the primary contributor to industry growth. Memory revenue is forecast to total $837 billion in 2026 before surpassing $1 trillion in 2027. This segment is projected to account for 54 per cent of total semiconductor revenue in 2026, up significantly from 27 per cent in 2025.

Substantial growth is expected across specific memory categories. DRAM revenue is forecast to increase by 246.6 per cent in 2026, while NAND flash revenue is projected to grow by 371.9 per cent. Although additional manufacturing capacity is anticipated to enter the market in 2027, supply-demand conditions are expected to remain tight as continuous AI infrastructure deployments drive up memory consumption.

Shrish Pant, Director Analyst at Gartner, explained that AI infrastructure has fundamentally altered the dynamics of the memory market. While price expansion is accelerating growth through 2026, continued deployments, higher memory content per AI server, and sustained demand for high-bandwidth memory will support ongoing revenue growth.

Beyond memory, demand is also expanding due to the increasing scale and power intensity of AI clusters, which require larger investments in CPUs, networking silicon, power management, analog devices, and optical interconnect technologies. Excluding memory, Gartner forecasts semiconductor revenue to grow from $589 billion in 2025 to $718 billion in 2026—an increase of 21.9 per cent—and reach $864 billion in 2027.

"The projected surge in global semiconductor revenue highlights the foundational role that hardware infrastructure plays in the current technology landscape. As AI adoption scales, the rising demand for specialized memory and processing components creates significant downstream opportunities for hardware and deep-tech startups operating within the broader ecosystem. Founders must align their product roadmaps with these structural shifts in global silicon demand." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes